There's no happy ending, so they say
by postal
Summary: Dr. Horrible : Five times Billy saves Penny, and one time he doesn't. billy/penny
1. and no one will notice

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any characters or concepts related to _Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog_. This is written purely for my own entertainment :)

**Authors Note**: This will not be a single story, but a series of independent vignettes, each standing on their own.

**and no one will notice**

Before she even knows what has happened, Captain Hammer pulls the trigger and Doctor Horrible is flying awkwardly toward her. His arms spread as though to cover her, a silly (or rather would be, if not for the circumstances) expression of horror on his face, her mouth opens as he collides with her and if there is sound it is drowned out by the explosion. She hits the wall and there is a great flash of light.

Hours, minutes, seconds pass, she is dizzy, and there is a great weight on her. The room is silent, almost palpably so, and Penny stirs, willing her eyes open to find herself staring into a pair of clear blue.

She knows them.

"Billy?" She breathes, her eyes are wide, and they are nose to nose.

He is heavy, his weight pressing on her chest and stomach making breathing a difficult task, (her frantic, panicked breaths don't help), but she doesn't, she's not, she can't think about that because Doct- No, _Billy_, she is sure of it now. (The sad blue eyes, the hesitant curve of his lips.) Billy is hurt, and his eyes are wide and she is sure she spots blood trickling behind closed lips, threatening to spill from his mouth.

"Oh no, Billy," Her voice is quiet and cracking, "Billy," Almost pleading.

His unfocused eyes fix on her own and he smiles, or tries to.

"Penny," His voice is quiet, hoarse, and full of relief. A small amount of blood sprays lazily from his mouth, splattering haphazardly on her face and Billy lets out a soft "Oh,"

"Billy, you, are you?" She tries to carefully maneuver her hands, to hold him, she touches his back and feels large bits of shrapnel. Her hand comes back red and sticky, "Oh no, hang on, hang on, please,"

He smiles at her again, though it resembles a grimace he is trying, and Penny feels her cheeks dampen and mix with the small flecks of red.

She wants to believe Captain Hammer will help. That Captain Hammer will save them.

But she doesn't.

She wants to, _desperately_, but she can't.

Because he didn't hesitate.

He pulled the trigger.

He ran away.

As the light fades from Billy's eyes, as the lights from cameras pop and flash, nearly blinding.

As the voices around her cheer and applaud, as his breathing slows and his last, nearly soundless whisper of her name fade into nothing.

She suddenly realizes, with breathtaking, earthshaking clarity, that something, perhaps everything is horribly, horribly _wrong_, and as the applause continues. As they pry Billy from her shaking bloodstained hands, holding him aloft like a trophy, she is faced with the inescapable fear no one else will ever notice.


	2. everything

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any characters or concepts related to _Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog_. This is written purely for my own entertainment :)

**Authors Note**: Penny and Billy's relationship strikes me as having the ability to be either extremely adorable or really creepy, depending on how you play it out.

* * *

**everything  


* * *

**

"P-Penny?"

Penny's eyes flutter at the sound but do not open.

Her head is pounding, her skin too tight, her muscles too stiff. She is groggy and queasy and though she's never had a hangover she's quite sure this might be what it feels like.

The phrase 'death warmed over' also jumped quickly to mind.

"Oh my God, _Penny_... I did it,_ I did it_,"

She finally forces herself to open her eyes immediately regretting such a rash and clearly foolish decision. The light above her is blinding, her eyes sting and water and soon the world starts spinning with no sign of stopping. She blinks furiously, but the movements come out clumsy and lethargic, eyelids slow to respond to such demands.

To her amazement (and gratitude) the blobs eventually slow and swirl into focus. Reds and blacks and grays forming and dancing, finally clearing to reveal a gaunt figure looming over her, fearsome black goggles staring, a demented smile on his face.

Her stomach churns and before she is fully aware of what is happening, she is leaning over the side of the bed retching. Nothing comes. She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to quell the nausea rushing through her.

"Oh God, Penny, are you okay?" She opens her eyes once more and sees nothing but cold steel beneath her. "Of course you're okay, you're alive! I did it, I did it,"

The voice is familiar yet foreign, giddy and demented. She rolls awkwardly back into a sitting position, wiping her mouth with the back of her trembling hand, her head swimming.

"What," She starts weakly, and pauses, continuing only when she is sure she won't start dry heaving again, "What happened?"

The man in the goggles smiles, baring teeth.

"Everything,"

Something inside her clicks and somehow she knows.

"Billy?" She says, tilting her head, licking her lips.

He looks (or she supposes he does, with the goggles, she can't be sure) confused at first, pauses, and for the briefest of moments she thinks she can see her friend, lost and slumped, playing dress up in dark goggles and a sinister labcoat.

"Billy, what happened?" She repeats, looking at her nightgown, the bed, the room.

The bed, she soon realizes, is merely a dressed up metal slab in the middle of an eerie laboratory. Shocking blue sparks fly from strange and frightening machines, swirling veins of green liquid squelch unpleasantly through plastic tubes winding around the room.

Her eyes focus once more on Billy, a Billy she has never known, never seen.

Or perhaps she had and just wasn't paying close enough attention at the time.

"What happened?" He repeats slowly, his lips slowly pulling up at the corners forming a near feral grin, "What happened? I- I've done the impossible! They all thought I was crazy! Demented, irrational, deranged! A failure, but I did it!" He holds his head high with pride, teeth bared delightedly, as though he has something to prove.

"I brought you back, back from the dead. I-" He started laughing, deep and booming and terrible, and he looks every bit the demented doctor he aspired to be. "I brought you back to life! You're back! You're mine and we can finally be together! Forever!" He turned his goggled face to her in excitement, nodding without any inclination of ever stopping.

Chills spread through Penny and she felt suddenly, acutely, painfully sick. Her skin suddenly feels dirty and pale and _dead_, itching and crawling. She crossed her arms tightly against her chest, her breathing shallow. His obsession rolling in, covering her in a fearful fog, attaching to her skin like an oily film.

"You know what? I have just the thing!" He proclaimed, "I'd been saving it! I knew this day would come, and they laughed at me," He is muttering excitedly to himself, his back to her rummaging in the shadows while Penny sat, shaking, violated, exposed in the spotlight, hot and burning above her.

He returned, in his gloved hands a large silver key and official looking rolls of yellowing paper. She is, against her will, curious and at the same time horrified.

"It's the key to the city, well country," He says casually, "Australia," He clarifies, "It's yours,"

He holds them out to her.

She can only stare at his goggles in shock and fear and disbelief.

"Billy, Billy stop, you're scaring me," She slides back on the slab, away from him, until she is almost on the edge.

"You don't like Australia?" He questions with genuine shock and disappointment, "That's okay, it's okay, I can give you," He pauses, appearing to do some fast thinking, "France! That's a nice place isn't it, romantic right? No? Rome? Italy?" He snaps his gloved fingers, it doesn't make a sound but the gesture is one of habit, "Hawaii! I hear the weather is amazing this time of year,"

Penny is removing her blanket and slowly slipping off the bed, her muscles are wobbly and her chest and stomach are searing and screaming. She hasn't, healed yet, she supposes, or become... become fully, _alive_ again, or, or something. The thoughts of her dead and being revived like some _science experiment_ frighten and sicken her and she can't- she can't stay in this room another second.

Not with Billy, not with Doctor Horrible.

"Penny?" He questions and she thinks perhaps she can hear the old Billy, her Billy buddy, but she looks up and can only see the black of his goggles. "Penny what are you doing? Where are you going?" He takes a step toward her and she flinches away. He stops short and just stands there, unsure.

"I can't do this," She says, her chest and stomach protest, and her head spins as she tumbles off the slab in the hospital gown, "I can't- I can't be here" Her face is determined yet afraid. Billy can spot the insecurity in her eyes, the slight quiver to her lip.

There is still a chance he can get her. Make her see. She just needs to realize- she's just confused.

"Penny, Penny don't," He says placating, she just needs to _listen_, "What do you want? I can give you anything, _everything_! Whatever you want! I can make homes for all the homeless in Australia, they could all live there, you'd like that right?"

She doesn't answer, she just trembles.

He steps toward her once more, finally coming into the light. It is harsh on his face, the goggles casting deep, dark shadows over gaunt features.

Penny steps back, bare feet cold on the dull steel.

"I did this, all of this," He gestures vaguely, "for you." The words ring painfully in her ears, "The power is in different hands now."

She merely looks at him, fearful.

"What do you want?" He asks once more, pleadingly, desperately.

The tone breaks her heart.

"What do you want?" A pathetic whisper.

She brings her hand to her throat, gripping the neck of her gown.

"I want to go," She answers, emotion filling her voice, flooding her eyes, she licks her lips, "Please. Please Billy,"

His mouth opens slightly in silent horror. He slumps.

Her heart hammers in her chest.

When he finally answers his voice is thick and high and cracking.

"Then go,"

She pauses, for just a moment, and then she does.


End file.
